A slot machine is a type of wagering game, often offered in casinos and other gambling establishments. Traditional slot machines are coin-operated machines with three or more reels, which spin when a lever on the side of the machine is pulled. The machines include a currency detector that validates currency inserted to play. The slot machine provides a spin of the reels, and a resulting spin result occurs. The spin result includes a set of symbols. The machine typically pays off based on patterns of symbols visible on the front of the machine when the reels stops.
A video lottery terminal (“VLT”) is a gaming machine that allows gamblers to bet on the outcome of a video game, e.g., a video simulation of a traditional mechanical slot machine. The VLT may include a display such as an LCD screen and inputs to receive player instructions, and communicate with a centralized computer system that determines the outcome of each wager. VLTs may also be known as video gaming devices or video slot machines. Video lottery terminal functionality may also be provided on a conventional personal computer, cellular telephone, or other computer-based device, either using installed software, or with functionality provided via Internet downloads or web page portals.
To increase the excitement of video slot machine play to game gamblers, video slot machine games often provide bonus games. Some bonus games have been proposed which include an extended sequence of events, e.g., a simulated dice game potentially having multiple dice rolls, during which prizes are accumulated. These sequences of events, and the bonus round itself may be terminated by the occurrence of a termination event, e.g., rolling craps in the simulated dice game.